Updated 28/10/20
Author: grssports
“Stop being a bystander in your own life”; the sailor that took the path to becoming themselves, no matter what
Not everyone has a life that simply goes from one point to another unchallenged at any point. This is the exact same for Tracy Edwards, navigator of Maiden.
Doing what you want to do is a privilege that not many people get, Tracy was not going to let anything get in the way of that. Expelled from school at 15, many would not have expected anything to come from someone after that as it is common for motivation to simply dissipate.
Tracy knew education was not for her and so did her Mother. Speaking in a Ted talk Tracy quoted her Mother, saying, “Darling, education is not for everyone… every single one of us is good at something, you just have to go and find what that is.” After that her Mother let her go back-packing at the age of 16. This is an enablement that many young people today would definitely not get, a sense of freedom and a journey path starting to being happier within herself.
Going to Greece at that time was the best thing that could’ve happened. At 17 whilst working on a boat, Tracy was asked if she could navigate, her obvious response was no. Over two days the skipper then taught Tracy how to navigate and she knew there and then this was it. Especially after she says that numbers appeared to her like ‘Hieroglyphics’ beforehand and hated them.
The next stage of the journey came to finally entering the Whitbread around the world race. Out of over 200 crew in the whole race, Tracy was one of three women and also she had no part in navigating she was onboard as a Chef. This irritated her as she knew that her own cooking was ‘lousy’ and that she was a great navigator.
This lead to her quest to get an all female crew to take part in the race. Once doing so this annoyed a lot of people at the time, a lot of men in particular. This didn’t phase Tracy at all, constantly saying, ‘How does it affect them?’. Tracy even recalled on many times men coming up to her and saying ‘You’re going to die’. The response, “Well, ok, that’s my business.” The Maiden came second. The best British boat since 1977.
Tracy has since hit bankruptcy in later years and is not disgruntled by it in the slightest. She got expelled from school, was told on many occasions she would die, has later on gone bankrupt and had many other hurdles on her way. Tracy is still happy, she did what she wanted, and let nobody, no man, tell her what she could and couldn’t do. Be yourself, no matter what.
A year for growth.
This year is going to be unlike any other I have had before and I doubt like any other I will have.
I will not let that demotivate me.
I will not let the slowing down of the world around me affect my work and my ability to work as hard as I always have.
My love for all sport is unquestionable. I enjoy that I can be a part of many communities through having an interest and knowledge of varying sports spreading from each end of the spectrum.
I see this as a bonus rather than something that lessens myself. Many would like to become an expert in one very tiny particular field. I would not fully agree. Yes, everyone has their favourite, something they would love to do more than anything else, but that is a luxury not many would get as the industry evolves.
Many see it as odd and not fitting in by trying to learn about so much, breaking the mould of what many in the industry have done before. I see it differently, having an interest in such a vast number of sports broadens your horizons, it lets you learn how fast-paced this world is going to be and lets you know that you have to be able to adapt and quick rather than thinking everything will be done in a linear sequential way.
This year without a doubt is a year of growth. From what I have done before to building upon it. I am never looking to be stagnant and complacent. I am strong-willed, good at decision making, punctual and have a good understanding of technology, the future of this line of work. I believe these qualities are a great base for growth to become a better journalist, not just wanting to be a better one, but becoming the better journalist that I will be.
I do believe there is one key factor that helps with seizing opportunities, being different. Doing everything that everyone else has done before will only get you so far. Being interested in multiple areas of this particular world and industry and not being like the crowd is how you further yourself. To become something there has not been before, to become as good as I can be, to do the job better than anyone else could, in your way, let personality shine through.
From Dreaming of Being a Sports Star to Eminent Journalist: Jacqui Oatley
The name Jacqui Oatley is now a household name in many a home in the UK for the broadcasting career that she has. Not as well known is the story that took her on a very different path to the one that she set out to achieve.
Born in Wolverhampton, Oatley was an avid Wolverhampton Wanderers fan and grew up aspiring to be like the players she went and watched every week. Unfortunately, a tendon and ligament injury in her knee slashed her chances of playing professionally and had to look for another route through life.
Very early on after this, Oatley knew there was no way her passion for sport could keep her out of this world and decided to pursue a career in journalism. It all started out with the small shows, first broadcasting off of hospital radio to do the sport roundup.
Oatley spoke recently alongside a panel of well known broadcasting names such as Isa Guha, Matt Murray, Mark Cole and Barbara Slater to discuss breaking into the industry and what it is like to do so. During this, speaking of experiences such as “Sleeping on my friends’ floor” and emphasising, “It can be very tough at times, but I am so privileged to work in this industry.”.
After this, Oatley speaks sharply on the need to talk to the right people to get into the right places to become a journalist. Following up with saying how important it is to speak to the right people because if you do so, good opportunities will follow.
Oatley is widely known as the first female commentator on ‘BBC’ show ‘Match of the Day’ and has taken on many more roles and broadcasted on many different platforms ever since further decorating an already inspiring career to many. The story of how Oatley got to where she is, is not as plain sailing as most would imagine showing how you can get to where you want to by not going down one route.
Nürburgring, Portimao and Imola; What is next?
(Image above by Bloomberg/Getty Images)
After a recent announcement confirming all previous rumours that Formula 1 will in fact go to some historic circuits unplanned to the original calendar, it has sparked some questions for what could happen for the rest of this year and years to come.
To start, even the idea of going to Mugello and these three circuits this year is unbelievably exciting as they are all circuits people would love to watch an F1 car go round.
Unfortunately that does bring our first problem. Qualifying will be great at these venues and that is undoubted. The races on the other hand, concern is the first thing that comes to mind.
With Mugello and Portimao having one noticeable overtaking points with Imola not having one, the races might end up being dull for the sacrifice of having some of the greatest qualifying laps we could ever see.
Dirty air has been all too common a theme over the years of the latest generation of car and these tracks would help produce a lot with the high-speed nature of the corners making it difficult for people to get close to each other.
What does this hold for the rest of the calendar?
Now that the rumours we all heard became true, what is coming up on the horizon for the rest of the season?
Currently, the rumours are that after the race at Imola, the teams would be heading east for a double-header of Vietnam and a return to Malaysia at Sepang.
This is all again positive news for Formula 1. Vietnam still getting its debut in 2020 is great news to see the new track even if it is not when it was first scheduled. Then to go Sepang would be just great news. Drivers love the place, fans love the track and it always produces great racing.
The only other news on the horizon is a double-header afterwards in Bahrain on two separate layouts of the circuit before concluding the season at Abu Dhabi.
If this is to be true we would have an 18 round season that would only be four short of the original season length. A great effort would be made to pull this off in such a confined time gap.
Another question all of this picks up is what happens to future calendars? If all these circuits are options for this year why could they not be for future years?
There are definitely circuits on the calendar people do not like and produce poor race weekends. So could we see them being replaced? With the original idea of the Miami GP we know Liberty Media, owners of Formula 1, are happy with scrapping the idea of one venue per country.
If this were to be the case, could calendars of future seasons with the next generation of more race-friendly cars go back to these venues? I certainly hope so as there is no question it would be a spectacle.
The future continues to look brighter and brighter for motorsport as a whole and in particularly Formula 1.
From first, to sixteenth, to third, to hospital and back five days later
(Photo above by STR/Getty Images)
It is fair to assume that reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez has had a rollercoaster of an opening week to the season.
After a strong start from the outset Marquez put his Repsol Honda in first for FP1 on the Friday and keeping it on the front row in P3 in qualifying.
Then came Sunday, where the madness started.
After a strong start to the race Marquez found himself in a very familiar position, leading out front.
Then as it is weirdly common to expect from a rider in MotoGP, the cameras cut to a shot of him riding through the gravel after saving a moment mid-corner that sent him to the back of the pack.
After getting himself back on track, the iconic Marquez that has entertained for so long came to the forefront.
Showing yet again much superior race pace in comparison to everybody else he cut his way through the field as if it was nothing getting himself back into a podium position with six laps to go.
This lasted four corners.
After passing Jack Miller at the final corner it took until turn three for Marquez to have a spectacular high-side that saw him rolling violently through the gravel getting hit by his riderless bike in the process.
In an instant it was clear not everything was alright as he had fractured his humerus and needed to have surgery that would not come until two days later.
Once this had become announced it was expected that Marquez would miss a number of races in a shortened calendar that would really hurt his championship chances.
Then believe the impossible. The surgery went “spectacularly well” and not five days after the accident Marquez is back on his bike for FP1 at the same track.
Marquez has broken too many records to count in MotoGP and still has plenty of years to break what is left of other records. Not only this but the man has now defied logic having the quickest recovery you have ever seen from a fractured arm.
Marc Marquez is something else, enough said.
Sports Greats Rally for Positive Responses as World Continues in Crisis
Many sports giants across the world are displaying their knowledge of how much influence they have to help put the message across for people to stay inside and to fight the virus.
Tom Brady, now the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has put a post up on Instagram talking about health and the one body we all have to try and keep it in best shape we can at all costs in moments like these.
“I just want to share with you all the tips that we at TB12 have put together. We’re in a tough moment but I know by taking some of these small steps they can really make a huge difference on your life.”
Also within the post the six-time superbowl winner shares a link to his TB12 Immunity Boost Gameplan to help people know what they can do to stay safe in times like these.
Another sports superstar doing their bit is the world famous Zlatan Ibrahimović. Zlatan and the team that work around him have created the ‘Kick the Virus Away’ campaign.
Whilst doing this he has also contributed over £100,000 in order to reach the target of 1,000,000 for the hospitals of Italy as he is now moved back to Italy to play for Inter Milan.
In the ever changing world that we currently live in, the campaign raised over €300,000 for Italian hospitals.
It wouldn’t be something to do with Zlatan if there was not a Zlatan comment to come with it.
If coronavirus doesn’t go to Zlatan, Zlatan goes to coronavirus
Zlatan Ibrohimović
Just what is the running order?: Are Mercedes DAS gut? Are Ferrari sandbagging? Have Racing Point created the ‘Pink Mercedes’?
Photo by shen liu on Unsplash
As winter testing has been an gone and we are less than a week away from the first media day of the year it is a good time to take a look at the running order, at least, what I think it is.
As of right now, I would think it would be fair to assume that Haas are 10th and last. Even with their own incidents they still had more time than Williams with their engine issues but were the only team not to clock 700 laps during testing. Not only that they were tenth in outright lap time. Albeit they never used the C5 tyre and if tyre-corrected they would not be last. But with the slowest time and the least laps and the conservative approach to understanding this years car as they could not last years, makes it seem a long time before Haas push forward.
Next is very tight but I’d believe that Williams are just ever so slightly behind Alfa Romeo. Williams who were so atrocious last year have seemed to make good steps forward and were only hindered this year by an engine they source in rather than their own work. With Alfa Romeo it’s a bit more hazy to guess. Their best time was set by their reserve driver Robert Kubica who was on average 0.625 seconds slower than rookie teammate George Russell last year and never out-qualified the rookie. So despite them being slower than Williams on the time sheet I believe there is room for adjustment with this team.
Alpha Tauri is next on the list. At the beginning of the season I can see this car sitting in a very lonely seventh in the Constructors Standings. If tyre-corrected they were seventh quickest on the timesheet and were sixth in laps completed. Right now the easily have the pace to be ahead of the three behind, but aren’t quick enough to quite be apart of the front of the midfield.
The next three are the most difficult to judge. McLaren, Renault and Racing point. Unbelievably close are these three teams. Racing Point have been smart in taking significant influences from last years World Championship winning Mercedes W10 and implementing it into their own RP20. I would say they’ve been clever. They have not copied the car, just used a lot of features and blended them to make their own car.
McLaren and Renault looking to build on previous years but with all three teams setting their best time on different tyres this is one is more difficult to do. As of right now it looks like McLaren take sixth, literally thousandths of a second behind Renault in what looks like an unbelievably close battle. Then the Racing point taking fourth being a tenth or two up the road on the two teams behind, impressively as, out of the three, they set the second best time on the slowest tyre out of three, the C3. Fourth should be comfortably theirs and if anything they should be looking forward.
Now, Ferrari. What is going on? In my opinion, it’s simple, they are sandbagging. This is due to two things in my mind. One being last years testing and how they over-performed and ended up trying to catch up to Mercedes throughout the season. So this year they are understanding the car better, put some upgrades on in Australia and be better than what we think. Also, I believe the engine has been very much turned down over concerns of the FIA’s investigation into the power unit of last year. Now with the FIA “… could not prove Ferrari engine illegal.” in the past week so as much as they were worried in pre-season that worry should be wiped away. Despite all of this, I still believe they are behind Mercedes and Red Bull.
Red Bull are an intriguing team this year. They are quietly confident and had a very promising pre-season test. At the start of the year though I don’t think they’ll be able to fight Mercedes all the way in the opening two races and will be playing catch up early on. Easily second, but as much as they improved, a team you can believe are putting a bit more resources into next years car already as the regulations will change. Now that is not a fact, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Adrian Newey already has a good understanding of what he wants to do with the car.
First, this year, I believe is the easiest thing to call heading into the season. Yes Mercedes DAS system is tricky on the eye and looks flashy. But the real work has gone into the rear suspension that sets it apart from any other. Just exquisite work. That alongside the fact their fastest time of a 1:15.732 was 0.537 seconds quicker than anybody else they were also the only team to exceed 900 laps in testing, a very impressive feat. Now speed they have, the one concern they have on the season ahead is the reliability of their power unit. It has had its issues in testing which could hinder them. One thing for sure though is that when it is working, the W11 is one very special bit of machinery.
Rashford and Bruno, This is it?
Another season is coming to a close and yet another year still seeming quite full of disappointment in the post-Ferguson era for the reds of Manchester.
Despite this, with the fifth manager in since Fergusons departure, are United back on the right path? I would say yes.
In goal you have one of the best Goalkeepers on the planet who is always in the debate for the best in De Gea. Not only that, but I wouldn’t be upset if a money-taking move for De Gea happened and the club recall Dean Henderson, a young English keeper proving his way, a United attribute.
In Wan-Bissaka you have your right-back for the long term, albeit a back-up is probably needed. Lindelöf and Maguire are forming a decent partnership but I would like to see more of Axel Tuanzebe in the squad as he could be the first name in the defence in a year or two. Also in Luke Shaw there is still the potential, he just needs a few stand out performances and if Brandon Williams keeps getting minutes you’re getting a more experienced back-up.
In midfield it becomes more tricky as there is that one big question. Paul Pogba. At this very point in time I’d be shocked if he wasn’t sold in the summer, it seems he is hurting more than helping right now. I think McTominay is a definite starter. The growth he has had through Mourinho and now Solskjær is something special. Alongside him you can keep Fred or buy someone new to replace Pogba, I’d be happy either way with Freds current form.
Bruno has no question, he starts.
Same again with Rashford, he plays. If Martial is playing or not I think he belongs on the left though. We’ve seen what Aubameyang’s done since joining Arsenal in a very underperforming side and I believe he can do better. Unfortunately I believe Martial is a short-term solution, he has spells of greatness but never for a prolonged time period. To be at the top though, United will need more, maybe Greenwood if what we have already seen is backed up.
Out on the right is a whole different story, they don’t have anything there, recruitment in that area is necessary, ideally a Jadon Sancho but after United transfer rumours of recent years I wouldn’t be too hopeful fans.
Recapping all I believe it takes is two or three good signings, one window could do it, but it won’t. Solskjær will better Mourinho’s own three year plan and take the team back to where it used to be.
Thrilling Extra Time For USW 1’s against Cardiff Met
The third quarter the game became even more tense as momentum began to change. After the gap had closed just before half time, USW fought back with a a four point swing to lead 28-27 at the end of the third quarter.
Megan Jones starred in the third quarter scoring eight of the nine points scored for USW.
Later in the game the tension never seemed to disappear. After fast end to end play the game did not slow down and neither side seemed to be able to break away.
USW keeping the game alive after being far behind in the first bringing the game to 39-39 after an early slip behind in the fourth quarter. Bringing on extra time.
Extra time was not as tight, in particular the first half. MET failing to register a single score in the first period of extra time and USW scoring 7 unanswered nearly blew the game apart right there and then.
An extra time second half come back was attempted by MET but could not complete it as USW stood strong.
The game then ended 49-44 to USW after a 26 and 22 point day for Abigail Meredith and Megan Jones.
Sports Insider by Gerren Scapens 